Training Log Archive: nmulder

0730 - An early start for a winter urban race, but thankfully the weather's warmed up a bit in the last few days, it was only 0'C on the drive to the race!

Raced with Debbie Gerrand and Doug Stott as Team First Ascent - Cyanosis. The plan was to have a nice social race at a comfortable pace. The race was essentially divided into 5 legs, 2 on foot, 2 on mtb and an obstacle course. You could take the 4 main legs in any order, as long as you didn't do both legs of 1 discipline back-to-back. The obstacle course was last.

We opted to start on foot (warmer) and did a leg that took us into Sandton and through the Sandton City Mall. Great fun, we even managed to take a route choice that saw us running through the mall taking an elevator down 1 floor into a carpark! The next leg was a rally instruction bike leg that took us through the suburbs, including a stop off at the playground at George Lea Park. We had to follow the tape through and across various pieces of equipment. Some of those jungle-gyms are trecherous, and they're designed for kids!

Next leg was another run, this time through the Benmore Gardens Shopping Centre. The instructions had us running up and down stairs all over the place, through the car park levels and down the back passageways of the building. Wow! Fantastic stuff, very intense nav. Last big leg was a map-read mtb leg to various CPs to the east of Sandton, including Innesfree Park and the Fire Station where we even had to do the fireman thing down the pole. Finally, we got back for the last leg over the inflatable obstacle course. The biggest suprise was being told that we had finished 2nd! Not bad given that we'd started slowly and had originally planned to race socially (okay, we did pump the bike legs). First were Team Asics, Richard, Rika and Phillip.

Bike readings were Tm 55:44, Dst 19.33, Av 20.8, Mx 58.4

C • intensity 3? 2

1500 - Lounge-Orienteering. 1:100 scale map of the Hemer household. Lots of pressure due to the throngs of spectators. I finished 3rd, but Eugene broke the quarantine rule and Dylan broke the 1-year embargo one. I should have appealed and been awarded 1st but I think the jury might have ended up a bit biased. ;-)

Otherwise a great post-JWOC lunch / social for the team.

C • that speed? 2

1630 - Run around Berario.

1200 - A nice comfortable run at midday around Fairland. Much more enjoyable than trying to run in the evening at this time of year. Run felt quite comfortable, a bit iffy feeling to start, but then felt like I was comfortably flying through the middle section. Still feel the altitude a wee bit. The last 2 months of constant training and racing has definitely had an impact on general fitness.

C • in a good or bad way? 2

1745 - Nice quick TT in cold weather. Happy with the way I started, but faded badly towards the end (lack of O2). A bit too cold cold, so I'd better start training at midday.

1200 - Core and legs

Flew home from Taiwan